NEET-UG paper leak: Plea in Supreme Court seeks NTA revamp or replacement

New Delhi: A medical body has urged the Supreme Court to direct restructuring or replacement of NTA with a robust and autonomous system to conduct NEET-UG, citing a "direct assault" on the fundamental rights of over 22.7 lakh students through recurring paper leaks.

The Federation of All India Medical Association (FAIMA), through lawyer Tanvi Dubey, has also sought a direction to appoint a high-powered monitoring committee until a fresh body is formally constituted to oversee the re-examination. It further said the committee should comprise a retired Supreme Court judge as the chair, along with a cybersecurity expert and a forensic scientist, to ensure that no further leaks occur.

The undergraduate-level National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) held on May 3 by the National Testing Agency (NTA) for admissions to medical education programmes was cancelled on May 12 amid allegations of paper leak, which are now being probed by the CBI.

The NTA, Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, and the CBI have been made parties in the plea by FAIMA.

"The present writ petition…seeks the urgent intervention of this Hon'ble Court against the recurring, systemic and catastrophic failure of the NTA in conducting the NEET-UG," it said.

According to the petition, the Rajasthan Police Special Operations Group (SOG) uncovered that "guess papers" circulated on WhatsApp and Telegram contained 120 questions identical to those in the actual Biology and Chemistry sections of the NEET-UG 2026 paper.

Despite the NTA's claims of using high-tech security including 5G jammers, GPS tracking and AI-monitored cameras, the plea alleged that these measures existed "only on paper".

"Direct mandating the 'digital locking' of question papers and a transition to a 'computer based test' (CBT) model, as suggested in the aftermath of previous leaks, to eliminate the physical chain-of-custody risks," the plea said.

It further sought a direction to the CBI to file a status report before the apex court within four weeks regarding the investigation into the paper leak, including the network identified, arrests made, persons charged and progress of prosecution.

For "transparent detection of anomalies", the NTA be asked to "forthwith publish centre-wise results (as and when available) of NEET-UG 2026", the plea said.

"NEET-UG is a national level examination for undergraduate medical admissions in India, directly affecting the academic and professional futures of over 22.7 lakh students. The recurring instance of systemic failure is a direct assault on the fundamental guarantees of equality and right to life/livelihood under Articles 14 and 21," it said.

The current system used by the NTA to conduct exams is without proper safeguards, it contested, adding that despite repeated paper leaks over the years, the authorities have "failed to implement requisite changes" to protect the exam's integrity.

"They continue to rely on risky, old-fashioned methods like physically printing question papers and using private couriers for transport, making them prone to leaks," it said.

The petitioner highlighted that this is not an isolated incident.

Drawing parallels to the 2024 paper leak, it said that the NTA has failed to learn from the past mistakes.

The petition referred to previous judicial observations regarding unauthorised access to strongrooms and the "highly sensitive" transportation of papers via e-rickshaws and private couriers.

The cancellation of the exam has left over 22 lakh medical aspirants and their families anxious about the next steps, including the fresh examination date, admit cards, examination centres and the counselling timeline, it noted.